FreeCell strategy: solve almost every deal

Because every card is face up, FreeCell is a pure planning game. These habits turn hard deals into wins.

Look before your first move

Spend a few seconds finding the Aces and Twos and noting how deeply each is buried. Your opening plan is usually to free the shallowest Aces while keeping cells open.

Free cells are a budget

Every card in a free cell reduces how many cards you can move at once. With all four cells empty you can move five cards to a non-empty column; with one empty cell, only two. Spend cells only when the move achieves something – freeing an Ace, emptying a column or completing a sequence.

Empty columns are worth double

An empty column doubles the size of the sequence you can move. Getting one early, often by clearing a short column, makes the rest of the deal much easier. Don’t fill it with a single low card unless you must.

Build long, orderly sequences

Columns that already form alternating-colour sequences are assets – they can move as a block when you have space. Avoid breaking them up to reach one card unless it unlocks an Ace or a column.

Watch what auto-play does

Cards that no column can use any more go to the foundations automatically. Sometimes you still need a low card in the tableau to hold a card of the other colour; this game only auto-plays when that can’t happen, so you never lose a useful card.

Use numbered deals to learn

Replay the same deal number after a loss and try a different opening. Deal #1 and other low numbers are a good place to start; #11982 is the one deal that can’t be solved.

Try it now in FreeCell.